Remote control cables often include end fittings secured onto the end of a conduit. Skilled practitioners have devised various ways of securing an end fitting on a conduit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,320 to Spease et al. teaches an end fitting comprising two eyelets which telescopingly engage one another and, in a sense, clamp onto the wires extending from the jacket. This end fitting is secure once placed on the conduit; however, placing the end fitting on the conduit involves manually feeding the wires through the eyelets of the end fitting. This process may involve some difficulty and unnecessary cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,519 to Conrad and U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,520 to Tschanz teach a method for molding a plastic end fitting to the plastic jacket of a conduit. Because plastic molds onto plastic at high temperatures, the plastic end fitting will thermally bond onto the plastic jacket. This bond will resist separation of the end fitting from the conduit. These patents also teach flaring the ends of the lay wires in the conduit in order to provide a mechanical lock between the conduit and the end fitting which is molded over the flaring on the wires. In other words, flaring the ends of the wires anchors the end fitting on the conduit. The mechanical lock or anchor further resists relative movement between the end fitting and the conduit. Flaring the ends of the wires is simple and inexpensive, but some applications require that the mechanical lock between end fitting and conduit be greater than is possible with the end-flaring technique.
Thus, current applications require a simple and inexpensive technique for mechanically locking the end fitting to the conduit, where in some cases the strength of the mechanical lock must be greater than may be acheived by the end-flaring technique.